State of Tennessee v. Christopher Michael Ferrell, M2015-01011-CCA-R3-CD

Background

Defendant Christopher Ferrell, owner of the Pit and Barrel, shot and killed Wayne Mills in the early morning after an argument in the bar; jury convicted Ferrell of second-degree murder and the trial court sentenced him to 20 years at 100%.
Witnesses described a verbal altercation after Ferrell crushed Mills’s cigarette; Mills reportedly threatened to kill Ferrell, smashed a glass, then turned toward him; Ferrell retrieved a .22 and fired multiple shots, one fatal (.22 to back of head).
Physical evidence: .22 casings and a .22 handgun at the scene; an unloaded .45 revolver was also on a table; autopsy showed non-contact gunshot to the back of head; victim had high blood alcohol and injuries consistent with falling.
Ferrell initially told police Mills pulled a gun; later admitted he shot because he feared Mills would shoot him; he also admitted lying to 911 and to officers and placed the .45 near the victim after the shooting.
Defense raised self-defense and voluntary manslaughter (adequate provocation); defendant also sought a special jury instruction under State v. Ferguson regarding loss of the victim’s cellphone data and proposed various modifications to self-defense jury instructions.

Issues

Issue	State's Argument	Ferrell's Argument	Held
Sufficiency: self-defense / manslaughter vs. 2nd-degree murder	Evidence supports conviction; victim unarmed, shot in back of head, verbal threats alone insufficient	Ferrell: acted in self-defense or at most voluntary manslaughter due to provocation	Court affirmed conviction: jury could reject self-defense and manslaughter; threats, glass breaking, and turning were not execution of threat or adequate provocation
Missing evidence (Ferguson instruction)	Cellphone data unlikely exculpatory; defendant could have obtained provider data; no duty-to-preserve violation requiring instruction	Police destroyed phone data with fingerprint powder and didn't request provider records; requested jury instruction about lost evidence	Court affirmed denial: Ferguson test requires materiality and inability to obtain comparable evidence; defendant could have sought provider records, so no instruction warranted
Self-defense jury instructions (burden phrasing, severance, lesser-included)	Pattern instructions correctly informed jury that State must disprove self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt; any prefatory language was harmless	Requested specific statutory-structure wording, severing "no duty to retreat," removal of prefatory phrase, and explicit burden statement for lesser-included offenses	Court held no reversible error: pattern instructions adequate; prefatory language did not shift burden and, read as a whole, jury was properly instructed
Sentencing / cumulative error	Sentence within statutory range; trial court properly weighed enhancements and mitigators; no cumulative errors	Requested minimum; argued mitigation and that offense bordered manslaughter/self-defense; claimed cumulative trial errors	Court affirmed 20-year mid-range sentence as not an abuse of discretion; no cumulative-error basis for reversal

Key Cases Cited

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (U.S. 1979) (standard for reviewing sufficiency of the evidence)
State v. Ferguson, 2 S.W.3d 912 (Tenn. 1999) (test for when State's loss/destruction of evidence requires remedy)
State v. Merriman, 410 S.W.3d 779 (Tenn. 2013) (Ferguson analysis and remedies)
State v. Bland, 958 S.W.2d 651 (Tenn. 1997) (jury resolves witness credibility and conflicts)
State v. Goode, 956 S.W.2d 521 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1997) (self-defense is factual jury determination)
State v. Renner, 912 S.W.2d 701 (Tenn. 1995) (force in self-defense must be reasonable)
State v. Leath, 461 S.W.3d 73 (Tenn. Crim. App. 2013) (instructions phrasing and burden analysis)
State v. Bise, 380 S.W.3d 682 (Tenn. 2012) (abuse-of-discretion standard with presumption of reasonableness for within-range sentences)